• Learn more while you sleep: go to sleep after learning something to remember it better in the morning sfn.org

• Trigger your senses to learn better: state dependent learning: learn something while smelling something new or tasting something new, when you will remember the odour you will also remember what you learnt blisstree.com

• Feel like you've had too much coffee, lsd simulation or sexual simulation using an ipod: Entrainment forevergeek.com

• Use the proper ear for different uses: The right ear is better at following the rhythms of speech and the left is better at picking up music tones

• Clear a stuffed nose: Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone to rock back and forth loosening congestion after 20 sec

• Reduce toothache pain: rub ice on the back of your hand on the area between your thumb and index finger. The nerve pathways in this area stimulate the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands

• Stop the world from spinning: put your hand on something stable, the tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a way to find balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the foot-on-the-floor wisdom

• Unstitch your side when running: most people exhale as the right foot hits the ground, this put pressure on the liver which creates a side stitch. Try exhaling as the left foot hits the ground

• Get your heart rate back to normal after an emotion: blowing on your thumb helps to control the vagus nerve which control the heart rate

• Get rid of brain freeze: Press your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth covering as much as you can.

• Stop nose bleed with one finger: press hard against the small dent below your nose as most bleeds come from that area

• Get rid of pins and needles in the hand: rock your head side to side, a tingly hand or arm comes from a compression in the bundle of nerves in the neck, rocking your head helps releasing the pressure

• Hold your breath longer: hyperventilate before holding your breath. It's not the lack of oxygen that force you to release your breath but the buildup of carbon dioxide which makes your blood acidic which signals your brains that you need to release your breath Edit: Do not do that to swim, read below for more informationmenshealth.com

I've done 4 X 20 min. naps and 2-4 hr core sleep for 18 months (out of a 20 month period). I tried the uberman for the first 2 months but the nap schedule was too difficult to maintain. I should note that I cheated somewhat by using modafinil in combination with the naps to maintain my minimal sleep schedule. And I actually felt my mental state improved over time. But I had sleep issues to begin with, thus the unorthodox sleep schedule.

It's a long story, but the reason I first tried polyphasic sleep was because I had a pretty serious sleeping disorder which was ruining my life. I figured, if I don't sleep, I can't have a sleeping disorder. And actually, I was right. As long as I didn't sleep for more than 4 hours at a time, I felt great. But any time I overslept, the old symptoms came back and it would take 2 or 3 (sleepless) days to recover. This was really what motivated me to stick with it, the fear of returning to the way I was.

As time went on I would occasionally oversleep (if I missed too many naps, I would eventually crash) and realized that the symptoms I was trying to avoid didn't always appear. I realized that I could occasionally get a full 8 hours of sleep and not pay a penalty. Things continued to improve and I gradually moved back towards a more "normal" sleep schedule. In the fall I was sleeping 6-7 hours, two nights in a row, and then not sleeping at all the third night, and repeating that pattern. Right now I'm sleeping about 6 hours per night and skipping a night whenever I begin to feel symptomatic (or get too busy with work), maybe once a week. It seems like an occasional "reboot" of my sleep cycle puts me back on the right track.

So, while I know it's possible to maintain a polyphasic sleep pattern without going insane, you have to be really motivated and disciplined to make the transition and then maintain the schedule. My symptoms were my motivation, and as they disappeared, so did my ability to maintain a polyphasic lifestyle. Which is a little disappointing, since I had really come to depend on all those extra hours each day. I never seem to have enough time anymore, and the days go by much too quickly. C'est la vie.

How do you train yourself to do those 20 minute power naps? It generally takes me at least two to three times that long just to fall asleep, and once I'm out it seems like nothing is going to get me back up for a minimum of several hours.

Getting to sleep was never my problem. One of the symptoms of my sleep disorder was excessive daytime sleepiness. If I stopped moving, I usually fell asleep. But, like you, getting up was the hard part. You have to get up before you get into too deep a sleep (~35-45 mins.), and this is where the discipline comes in, especially when you're just starting out. I developed several different strategies that made it easier. I listen to a white noise sleep track (Placebo's Sleep Track) which wakes you up after 25 mins. with various rooster calls and bagpipes. The white noise has the added benefit of drowning out external noise if you are napping at the office or in your car, etc. I always nap in a well-lit area, so it's not dark when I wake up. Early on especially, I also napped in positions that were comfortable enough to get to sleep, but not comfortable enough to stay asleep. I found sitting in a chair good, or sitting on the floor, because after 20 minutes it gets a little uncomfortable and I want to get up. I could never nap in my bed. It was just too damn comfortable, I would always oversleep. The most important thing is to just start moving. Don't think about it, just get up and start walking. After a minute or so you'll feel wide awake and won't have the desire to go back to sleep... hopefully.

Just like anything else, it gets easier the more you do it. It's important to put together a string of successful naps during that early sleep deprivation period, so your brain knows that it has to enter REM sleep right away and won't get the chance to do so during a long sleep period.

I've been researching polyphasic sleep and I can't find -anything- that suggests people give up for any reason other than social conflicts, or lack of motivation.

My sleep/waketime moves forward every day until I have an interrupting scheduled meeting, and then I'm groggy for 2 days. I'm looking for systems that people have used to fix this... It's not something super-easy to experiment with without a something to aim towards...

StevePavlina.com <- This guy did it for a few months.
Stopped because it really fucked up his schedule to have to take a 20 minute nap every 4 hours without exception.
Imagine never being able to leave the house for more than 4 hours at a time.

I actually have a friend from school who has been doing this with very little issue since the middle of the summer. He said once you get on the schedule it's fine, but transitioning into it took him a solid month or so of exhaustion.

It doesn't add oxygen, it removes CO2. But you still need oxygen. The CO2 is usually used by your brain as a "hey, you need to breathe now!" alarm. By pumping out the CO2 you are simply hitting "snooze" (or in this case, "drown").

Exactly. This is why inert atmospheres of helium, nitrogen, etc. are so dangerous. If you're breathing pure nitrogen, the only notice you'll have that you're being asphyxiated is the dizziness right before you pass out...

There was a BBC documentary into the death penalty in the USA a while back, it looked at a few different aspects of it but one of the main ones was the method of execution. The two considered most humane were hanging with a sufficient drop to break the neck or nitrogen asphyxiation, the reason that they aren't used anywhere is that the victim doesn't suffer.

the reason that they aren't used anywhere is that the victim doesn't suffer.

I thought this line was hyperbolic editorializing, but, wow, I just watched the documentary, and you're absolutely right. I'm going to remember this the next time I get into a debate over the death penalty.

Where is evidence for this in the documentary? I just watched the beginning, and the only support of this statement was some guy saying "so what if they suffer?" Do they actually have evidence that this is a widespread sentiment, or just that someone somewhere has expressed this sentiment?

Argh. Exactly. This is just some guy, expressing his opinion. (Even if he is an expert in gov't policy---which is dubious since he just appears to be the head of a death penalty advocacy group---he never states a claim about the reasons that the gov't chooses a particular execution method.)

Classic shady documentary technique: determine the straw man you'd like to argue against, find a single person who will argue as the straw man, and then generalize to a large group of people.

I'm not saying that this isn't in fact why the US uses the particular execution methods it does. I'm just saying this documentary give almost no evidence for that claim.

the reason that they aren't used anywhere is that the victim doesn't suffer.

I just watched the relevant part of the documentary, and I think the documentary provides basically no evidence for that claim (although the documentary certainly thinks that it does). In another comment I said:

This is just some guy, expressing his opinion. (Even if he is an expert in gov't policy---which is dubious since he just appears to be the head of a death penalty advocacy group---he never states a claim about the reasons that the gov't chooses a particular execution method.)

Classic shady documentary technique: determine the straw man you'd like to argue against, find a single person who will argue as the straw man, and then generalize to a large group of people.

I'm not saying that this isn't in fact why the US uses the particular execution methods it does. I'm just saying this documentary give almost no evidence for that claim.

i had to do this doing lifeguarding. well, the training stuff anyway. we had to be able to swim 2 to 3 lengths of the pool completely underwater which is pretty much impossible without hyperventilation.

2/3 lengths of 25m i.e. 16m or 75m all together. because its quite easy to do 25m, even 37.5m but over that it becomes increasingly harder, even with the jump from pedestal. used to do 25m underwater as a warm up, when I entered the pool.

we had a fifty meter pool, for a total of 150m. by the end of things you'd have to rely on the little pocket of air you had stored in your mouth, probably more of a placebo effect but it kept me from sucking in.

had to be totally submerged, including during flip turns. some people (like the veterans) would do harder strokes like breast/frog, but for the most part it didn't matter what you did. we had 1000/2500/5000m (above water) where we'd have to do specific strokes.

I can't see anything when I tilt my head. I'm not really sure what it is I'm supposed to be seeing. Even the example picture looks pretty blank to me.

This image is intended to give a more accurate impression of the appearance of Haidinger's brush than Haidingers-brush.jpg. It is a combination of Haidinger-brush.jpg, a screen shot of the Wikipedia main page, and Photoshop manipulation.

Was the Photoshop manipulation completely removing Haidinger-brush.jpg? Because it looks pretty blank white to me.

Really? It's a (for me) clearly visible shape like a pink upright hourglass on a blue circle. I tried to see Haidinger's brush for a while and haven't managed that yet, but I'm surprised to hear that you can't see the illustration you linked to. Are you aware of any colour blindness problems?

Nerve fibers that transmit touch also affect gatekeeper cells. This explains why rubbing a sore area — such as the site of a stubbed toe — makes it feel better. The signals of touch from the rubbing actually decrease the transmission of pain signals.
Mayo article on pain.

Does anyone have any anecdotal evidence that the dual n-back actually does make you sharper? I did it for about a fortnight, and did seem to feel a little sharper, but couldn't rule out the possibility of placebo.

For a time in the 1970s, US dieters could purchase a pill form of miraculin.[7] It was at this time that the idea of the "miraculin party"[7] was conceived. Recently, this phenomenon has enjoyed some revival in food-tasting events, referred to as "flavor-tripping parties" by some.[11] The tasters consume sour and bitter foods, such as lemons, radishes, pickles, hot sauce, and beer, to experience the taste changes that occur.

Taste is subjective, so I wouldn't recommend anything to not try with miracle berries. The first article I read about these a while ago had a quote from a guy who liked stout lager because it tasted like a chocolate milkshake to him. That said, the best things to try are those that are sour or bitter, as they seem to have the greatest change in flavor.

These are great, although a good list of foods to try is useful. The first time I did it we ate some lemons, which taste really great, and a few other things but didn't have a good list of things to try that would be different or interesting.

The next few times we had a good list of foods, but it was still really short and we got bored before the effect wore off. Does anyone have some links to a good list of foods to taste with miracle berries?

Get rid of pins and needles in the hand: rock your head side to side, a tingly hand or arm comes from a compression in the bundle of nerves in the neck, rocking your head helps releasing the pressure

Untrue, when you get pins and needles in your hand/arm it's mostly from a more peripheral nerve compression.

Median nerve compression at the wrist (on the side of the palm) will give pins and needles in the thumb/forefinger/middle finger ...... to get rid of this hold your wrist in a neutral position. (this is what people get in carpal tunnel syndrome).

Most commonly it's a numbness in the little finger/ring finger and side of hand. This is from ulnar nerve compression at the elbow in which case you need to stop leaning on your elbow (where the funny bone is).

You can also give yourself a radial nerve compression by sitting with your arm slung over the back of a chair (this covers the back of the hand).

Forgot one, saw on tv that contracting muscles from feet, legs etc. up all the way to the face ones and back down during 5 sec each, help to relax them and help to fall asleep. Anybody does that? or have tricks to fall asleep?

What Tony Robbins does is every time before he runs he does a particular weird hand signal. Eventually the brain links this up with the physical excitement of running. So then if you ever need a hit, you can just do that hand signal and boom. The problem is its like a really weak battery, you have to charge it up like 30 times before you can take a hit. I've done this it works.

You don't actually need to charge it up more than once, really, as long as it's a fairly strong feeling.

What's also cool is that you can combine anchors...

I've got two of my favorite sensations of being loved attached to the action of pressing my middle finger and thumb together, with one sensation on each hand. So when I touch my middle fingers and thumbs on both hands, I get a super powerful wave of love.

Just figure out a weird physical thing to do with your hand that you won't accidentally do in the course of the day. Then just be consistent. Like for example do the star trek spock symbol three times in a row, that's an example.

I'd like to know this also. From independent research I can't completely separate it from other new-age bs. From personal experience (I've only used the beats for studying), I can't tell if I was just experiencing a placebo or if the white noise helped because it removed auditory distractions, but it definitely helped, although I guess it didn't help too much because I haven't used them in months.

Basically you will hear a third tone which is the difference between the two in your ears, but the idea that this tone will affect your brainwaves in some significant way is pure pseudo-science at this point.

At least in my experience, after using them for sleep I felt more rested and recalled every dream I had during the night. I have also had more energy using mid frequency tones in the morning and during the day. Of course they work better on some people than others. I've heard isochronic tones are effective on more people but haven't tried them myself.

I followed one of your links, and some guys are getting erect and even having orgasms by using BWGen on this preset. Perhaps SBaGen works for Mac and Linux as a replacement. I have to try this at home! Brainwave sex!

Edit: God dammit, SBaGen doesn't support that .bwg file! I need my mental orgasm, I want to cum! Oh well, Boot Camp it is when I get home then. I'm not giving up my erection this easily.

Look in the mirror. Try tensing your stomach in a variety of ways and see if it increases your pupil size. Some people can dilate their pupils in this way,[2] although the underlying mechanism is unidentified. It could be connected to the feeling of "butterflies in your stomach" that you get when you like someone.

Could this have anything to do with increased amounts of serotonin? I know that it effects both mood and various other higher cognitive functions, but is also widely used in the gut. Furthermore LSD, which is known to increase pupil dilation, shares a small bit of structure on the edge of the molecule with serotonin.

I have very little formal training in the subject and realize that I am jumping to many conclusions.

What I used to do when I was really tired is to hold my breath really really really long, and when my chest is thumping, my body thinks I'm dying, then a big hit of adrenaline (or something) is released. I was up for 36 hours and did this and then I couldn't get to sleep for another 12. I'm pretty sure this is not safe. Do not try this.